Mystical Realm

The home of the bats

The group makes it to a fanciful city, clearly more advanced than any of their homes. "Wow..." Aussie says under his breath "This place is...bright" he shields his eyes from the glinting buildings.

"We're in the city of light...the home for all rich sn....I mean kind and generous souls who wish to help out poor orphans struggling to survive in this cold cruel world" Kuro says quickly changing his tone when he spots a group of richly dressed people glare at him. They smile at his new phrasing before walking away "Ugh...I don't do good around rich people..."

Martha also looks uncertain about being around these people.

"Unfortunately...we need to go thiss way to get to the mosst likely locationss for the cat and wyvern" Tim says under his breath frowning at the people "There aren't any humanss here? It'd be sso cool if we could meet another one!"

They all eye him wondering how he's gotten this far without learning that only one human exists which is Martha but no one says anything choosing to let him dream.

"The more worrying thing is who li..." Kuro begins before he cuts himself as two guys stand in their way, both with bat wings *one fruit and one cave*. After a second Kuro finishes his sentence "lives here...hey Stanford, Bob...what's up?"

"Stanford? Bob? Kuro you know these two?" Mooncaster asks

"Yeah...they work for Vlad. This is his hometown and the base of his...operations" he says looking down his eyes shaded.

"Heh, the boss wants to see you little black fox" snarls one, Stanford.

"Black fox?" Martha asks looking curiously at Kuro whose fur was a light blue color instead of black.

Kuro continues to stay quiet, staring down but he starts to walk forward, ears down.

"Black fox? Could it reference dark magic? Is this kid...wielding dark magic or does it mean he's more of a black sheep in his own family?" the mystery man asks, still invisible and unable to be heard.

"Kuro! Your not seriously going to go with them to see Vlad are you?" Mooncaster asks astonished.

Kuro hesitates for only a second before saying "I'm sorry Mooncaster but...I have to go see him" he looks at him smiling "You guys keep going. I'll meet you guys there, promise"

Mooncaster opens his mouth and reaches out but stops looking down sadly "Alright...come on guys. We should move on before Vlad attempts to get at Martha"

The mystery man makes a string bunny and tells it "I need you to go protect that boy ...the one who seems to be dark magic...but definitely if anything happens to him I don't want a friend of Martha hurt ok? So you have the same power as me, use it if you must and even if he does or doesn't I can feel his string is a little darkened."

The bunny bounces and teleported to his target.

As for the group, they quickly leave although they stop at a hotel on the edge of town for the night. Martha gets a room by herself although it's connected to Mooncaster, Aussie and Tim's room through the closet.

In Martha's room

Mystery man stays outside the bathroom door as Martha takes a bath and watches her once she's back in the room, having gotten her some food.

"You know...you could always show yourself to me" Martha says as she nibbles on a piece of apple but mystery man doesn't reveal himself at least not fully. He lets his strings out, making them form animals and things to entertain her until she falls asleep. Once she's asleep he pulls the blanket over her and wishes her sweet dreams.

In Mooncaster's dreams

"I'm...here again?" he asks looking around. He was once again in the form of a wolf but when he looks up, there his wolf form was right in front of him.

"You're confused...this isn't a safe thing but you must uni..." the wolf began before the vision fades to black.

In Martha's dreams

She walks among other humans but it's almost like dark energy was surrounding the area swirling off of every human. She looks up as a bright light is shown and a human girl stares down at her.

"Hello, child of ancients" the girl says smiling at her before she motions for Martha to follow "Come, Wolf can only lend his power for so long and I have much to tell you"

As they walk together, she speaks "Your guardian angel is doing it's job very well I've seen but soon you'll have to make a choice and one that it cannot protect you from. The choice you make will affect everyone and the entire realm itself...did you know that humans once walked amongst the animals? They viewed us as gods until the day the dark aura started to become too much. It corrupted the animals it touched and turned them into monsters...we...to...my time....over" she says before the dream vanishes.

Martha sits up "Humans...used to live here?" she asks no one in particular and shakes her head "It's just wishful dreams" she sighs before flopping back down and falling back to sleep.

The mystery man smiles and thinks "she's learning this place is filled with only mystical creatures but once even more humans existed but something changed and that small group vanished and died...either way."